John F MacGovern

John MacGovern is a 1980 graduate of Dartmouth College. MacGovern served as president of the Hanover Review, which publishes the student newspaper The Dartmouth Review, from 1999 to 2002. During the early 1980s he worked in the public affairs office at Mobil Oil Corp. and as press secretary to a conservative challenger of then-U.S. House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill (D-MA). MacGovern ran for the Massachusetts state legislature in 1982 and won. After four terms in the statehouse, he decided to challenge then-U.S. Congressman Chester Atkins (D). MacGovern narrowly lost to Atkins in the race for Massachusetts’ Fifth District House of Representatives seat. MacGovern lives in Windsor, Vermont and has been an unsuccessful candidate for that state’s legislature three times. In his most recent attempt in 2008, he was defeated by incumbent Donna Sweaney (D-Windsor).